Thyngs, Cellotape Smart Products Partner on NFC-enabled Marketing

Thyngs, a mobile proximity platform, and Cellotape Smart Products, a provider of NFC- and RFID-enabled products and labels, have announced a strategic alliance intended to make it easier for organizations to deliver NFC-based proximity marketing campaigns at scale. The announcement comes a few weeks after Apple revealed its support for NFC tag reading on the iPhone 7 and newer phones running the next release of its mobile operating system, iOS 11.

As part of the relationship, customers of both companies will be able to commission custom-designed NFC-enabled products and labels manufactured by Cellotape, pre-configured for the Thyngs proximity platform. The platform offers flexible management and reporting tools, as well as QR code and Bluetooth beacon support.

The alliance extends the commercial relationship between the two companies, which previously involved a global NFC wearables marketing campaign for a blockbuster movie launch. As part of that campaign, movie-goers were provided with smart temporary tattoos that they could tap against an Android smartphone in order to access exclusive content and digital experiences. Each of the 250,000 tattoos contained NFC chips that were configured, managed and tracked via the Thyngs platform, providing real-time location, usage and interaction data.

Thyngs' creative services team designed the custom NFC products, while Cellotape provided manufacturing and global distribution. "This announcement cements our relationship with Cellotape Smart Products and builds on an innovative joint project that pioneered new forms of consumer interaction on a scale we have never seen before," said Neil Garner, Thyngs' CEO, in a prepared statement. "It shows just how easily our platform can be used to deliver proximity-based campaigns and solutions at scale. Together with Cellotape we'll be able to deliver even better experiences for our clients and their consumers."

Nick Testanero, the president of Cellotape Smart Products' NFC Division, added in the statement: "We are delighted to be forming this relationship with Thyngs which will further help our clients make anything possible using our smart NFC-enabled products and labels. Cellotape has a long history of innovation in this market, and is behind many iconic NFC marketing programs. Our recent collaboration with Thyngs is a testament to how we can deliver at unprecedented scales for large brands."